- Thread starter james123
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Windy Miller
Semi-Professional Potterer!
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- North Kent, UK
Sorted me out a treat.The only trouble with cuxton is they are rather expensive to say the least. I only use them in total desperation now.
I use these guys.
http://www.ultimetalloys.com
Friendly service, very good delivery charges compared to the rest out there and they have always undercut the local very unfriendly main competition. (In sittingbourne is all i will say)
Depending what you need James, It would be worth giving me a shout as i have some stock at my works which should be used rather than sitting there doing nothing. If it's any help and you need long lengths of materials delivered you cant handle, I can always add it to my orders to help get it at a better rate for you. Assuming its practical and you and are fairly local.
Kind regards,
Scott (ward eng)
I use these guys.
http://www.ultimetalloys.com
Friendly service, very good delivery charges compared to the rest out there and they have always undercut the local very unfriendly main competition. (In sittingbourne is all i will say)
Depending what you need James, It would be worth giving me a shout as i have some stock at my works which should be used rather than sitting there doing nothing. If it's any help and you need long lengths of materials delivered you cant handle, I can always add it to my orders to help get it at a better rate for you. Assuming its practical and you and are fairly local.
Kind regards,
Scott (ward eng)
Hmmmmmm, i don't like to say this but saying 'BMX bike and aluminium' in the same sentence has just opened up a big can of worms on the forum. You now have a whole host of issues to deal with.
Material is your big problem, The grades that are commercially available and what you actually need to make an ally frame don't really match up that well.
It can be done , but the down side is there are expensive processes and troublesome processes of heat treatment and straightening using the grade that is commercially available.
The ideal grade you would need is not commercially available off the shelf, this grade being 7020. To the best of my knowledge and experience nearly all structural applications in these types of fields use 7020, Motorcycles, push bikes etc. It does not need post heat treatment. The big problem here is this material is made at the mill to order, hence why you only find this material in production built items, so its cost effective. This material has to be made to order in several tons at a time at the mill and its not made in the uk.
As mentioned it can be done with commercially available grades, It will be a challenge being in Kent, there are no heat treaters left in this neck of the woods. To do this process it is essential you have a heat treaters nearby as there is a time limit on the first annealing process before straightening, and you need to get this process done within 24 hours then back to the heat treaters for the second process.
The other question is, do you have a tig plant to carry out the welding and can you tig weld. I have noticed you have been asking for a mig welder on the forum.
Kind regards,
Scott (ward eng)
Material is your big problem, The grades that are commercially available and what you actually need to make an ally frame don't really match up that well.
It can be done , but the down side is there are expensive processes and troublesome processes of heat treatment and straightening using the grade that is commercially available.
The ideal grade you would need is not commercially available off the shelf, this grade being 7020. To the best of my knowledge and experience nearly all structural applications in these types of fields use 7020, Motorcycles, push bikes etc. It does not need post heat treatment. The big problem here is this material is made at the mill to order, hence why you only find this material in production built items, so its cost effective. This material has to be made to order in several tons at a time at the mill and its not made in the uk.
As mentioned it can be done with commercially available grades, It will be a challenge being in Kent, there are no heat treaters left in this neck of the woods. To do this process it is essential you have a heat treaters nearby as there is a time limit on the first annealing process before straightening, and you need to get this process done within 24 hours then back to the heat treaters for the second process.
The other question is, do you have a tig plant to carry out the welding and can you tig weld. I have noticed you have been asking for a mig welder on the forum.
Kind regards,
Scott (ward eng)
oh big problem then i havent got a tig welder but if i change the settings and buy alternative parts for a gas mig welding i can convert it to weld aliuminium aparently. about the metal i will strugle getting it could be a huge problem. I was looking about heat treating the frame and i found on google there was ment to be a place in sittingbourn im not sure but thats what i found. I think im going to make sure i can source everything before making it anyway.
thanks for enlighting the problems to me scott great help
thanks for enlighting the problems to me scott great help
James,
I know this is not what you want to hear................................ but you are going to struggle very badly indeed. I know we all have ideals and want to make this and that, i don't like to put the dampeners on people ideals.
I hope you can appreciate i am probably one of the few who has gone down this route and learnt the hard way of how difficult it can be. It seems simple in essence and on paper, unfortunately the harsh realities are not that simple.
You will find it exceptionally hard with mig, it's hard on a good day with ally unless you have the right set up (and know what you are doing). I suggest you take a look at the many threads on the forum regarding ally mig. The main points i will say is, doing positional work with mig on ally is very hard even for a real pro. It seems you are a beginner, as such you will have a very very long learning curve ahead of you to get good enough to make a frame successfully. The end results of trying to do this with mig is a lot of scrapped material a lot of money spent and a high chance of not being successful with what you are trying to achieve.
Tig is the way to go with these sorts of projects, again it will come down to money, buying the plant and associated equipment. For ally you are really talking in the thousands of pounds as apposed to hundreds. On top of that you still have a big learning curve to get good enough to do a frame.
The heat treatment process again needs more associated often specially made equipment to be successful. After the first heat treatment process of solution treatment there is a exceptionally high chance the frame will be like a banana, sometimes you can get lucky and it wont move, but its rare.
This will involve having the means to straighten the frame after solution treatment withing ideally a 24 hour period, If you don't have those facilities available you could well have all your work scrapped in one foul swoop. To straighted something of that nature will ideally mean a jig custom made so it can be done fast, and with some accuracy.
Graffian on the forum has mentioned of someone in sittingbourne who can do ally heat treatment, i have to admit i do not know of them, that's not to say they do not exist.
Think long and hard before you embark on this project and invest time and money, then find you cant successfully achieve your goal.
This is only advice and of course you can try to do it the way you see fit.
My kind regards,
Scott (ward eng)
I know this is not what you want to hear................................ but you are going to struggle very badly indeed. I know we all have ideals and want to make this and that, i don't like to put the dampeners on people ideals.
I hope you can appreciate i am probably one of the few who has gone down this route and learnt the hard way of how difficult it can be. It seems simple in essence and on paper, unfortunately the harsh realities are not that simple.
You will find it exceptionally hard with mig, it's hard on a good day with ally unless you have the right set up (and know what you are doing). I suggest you take a look at the many threads on the forum regarding ally mig. The main points i will say is, doing positional work with mig on ally is very hard even for a real pro. It seems you are a beginner, as such you will have a very very long learning curve ahead of you to get good enough to make a frame successfully. The end results of trying to do this with mig is a lot of scrapped material a lot of money spent and a high chance of not being successful with what you are trying to achieve.
Tig is the way to go with these sorts of projects, again it will come down to money, buying the plant and associated equipment. For ally you are really talking in the thousands of pounds as apposed to hundreds. On top of that you still have a big learning curve to get good enough to do a frame.
The heat treatment process again needs more associated often specially made equipment to be successful. After the first heat treatment process of solution treatment there is a exceptionally high chance the frame will be like a banana, sometimes you can get lucky and it wont move, but its rare.
This will involve having the means to straighten the frame after solution treatment withing ideally a 24 hour period, If you don't have those facilities available you could well have all your work scrapped in one foul swoop. To straighted something of that nature will ideally mean a jig custom made so it can be done fast, and with some accuracy.
Graffian on the forum has mentioned of someone in sittingbourne who can do ally heat treatment, i have to admit i do not know of them, that's not to say they do not exist.
Think long and hard before you embark on this project and invest time and money, then find you cant successfully achieve your goal.
This is only advice and of course you can try to do it the way you see fit.
My kind regards,
Scott (ward eng)
Thanks for that scott as im only a newbie it will be a learning to just be able to mig weld properaly on steel let alone on aliuminum so i will have fun welding on steel first and then see how it goes thanks for the advice first first befor i wasted all my money amazing help thank you 
